By admin on May 28, 2014

Former FDIC Chair William M. Isaac writes at the American Banker: DOJ’s ‘Operation Choke Point’: An Attack on Market Economy History teaches that when government bureaucracies try to direct economies, stifled creativity, distorted markets and low economic growth are inevitable results. One of the easiest and most insidious ways for bureaucrats to control the U.S. …

By Publius on May 20, 2014

In a rare en banc session this past Monday, May 19, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit heard argument in American Meat Institute v. Department of Agriculture, reconsidering a (since vacated) panel decision holding that consumer curiosity is a sufficient justification for compelling disclosures by businesses. The en banc rehearing comes on …

Podesta: Congress Can’t Stop Obama On Global Warming

By admin on May 6, 2014

The Daily Caller reports: White House adviser John Podesta told reporters Monday afternoon that Congress could not derail the Obama administration’s efforts to unilaterally enact policies to fight global warming. Podesta said that the president was committed to using executive orders to pass regulations under the Clean Air Act to limit carbon dioxide emissions that …

WSJ: Standing to Sue Obama: Congress should challenge his refusal to enforce the law.

By admin on May 5, 2014

From The Wall Street Journal: The legal left and media are always last to know, but there are the makings of a correction in how the courts police conflicts between the political branches. President Obama’s serial executive power abuses—on health care, immigration, marijuana and much else—may be inspiring a heathy rejoinder. Under the Constitution, Congress …

By Alison Somin on May 1, 2014

Reports indicate that the Obama Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (“OCR”) is investigating Florida’s Bright Futures Scholarship program in response to claims that its consideration of SAT scores constitutes unlawful racial discrimination. The Florida Bright Futures program awards scholarship money for college to Florida resident students. To qualify as a Florida Academic Scholar, …

William Suter: Executive Power on Steroids

By admin on Apr 23, 2014

William Suter writes at the Hoover Institution’s Defining Ideas blog: Much has been made recently about the Obama administration’s aggressive and excessive use of executive power. Examples include making recess appointments when the Senate was not in recess and repeatedly changing significant parts of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) without express legislative …

Kennedy’s Question: How will the Court decide Hobby Lobby?

By admin on Apr 21, 2014

Adam J. White writes in the upcoming issue of the Weekly Standard: Kennedy’s Question How will the Court decide Hobby Lobby? Adam J. White April 28, 2014, Vol. 19, No. 31 We often think of the Constitution as a two-part document: first the original 1787 text, which primarily establishes the government’s structure; and then the amendments, …

Update On Official Manhattan Contrarian Predictions

By Francis Menton on Apr 18, 2014

Editor’s Note: This post appeared on the Manhattan Contrarian blog on April 17, 2014 Here at the Manhattan Contrarian, we don’t make a lot of predictions. But we veered from that path with a few Official Manhattan Contrarian Predictions at the end of last year. This was the first one: I predict that the number of “uninsured” …